10 October 2010

Porkin'

by Claudia

For Thanksgiving this year, Liz and I decided to skip turkey and go the giant-mound-of-pork route. The bo ssam recipe from Momofuku for Korean-style lettuce pork wraps looked both uncomplicated and affordable (pretty unusual for a Momofuku recipe). So, there it is. 8 pounds of pork shoulder, ready to be lovingly slow-roasted and basted for 6 hours.

Because I like to make things harder for myself, I decided to spend 4 hours making buns to accompany the pork. The end product almost erased the memory of having to hand-knead for 15 minutes. And waiting for the dough to go through three rises. Almost.

The finished product, ready to be shredded. The most difficult part of this recipe is trying not to put your face into the meat every time it needs to be basted.

For dessert, Liz's INSANELY GOOD lemon cream trifle with blueberry compote and strawberries. We hoovered this thing.

Since we obviously didn't eat enough last night, this afternoon's trip to Bellingham required a stop to Casa Que Pasa for their forearm-sized burritos.

Their most famous item, the potato burrito, is made up of fried potatoes, mexican rice, beans, cheese, smothered in a garlic mayo sauce, all wrapped up in a tortilla. I tried to take a good picture before I realized that it's just a mass of deep-fried, brown mush. The most delicious brown mush!